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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

It's A Small World Indeed!

Happy
2015! It's my first blog entry of the new year. I feel the need to
apologize for not writing in a while. We haven't had too much to write about in our eyes, but some of you might beg to differ. We've been busy slowing down,
enjoying the warm, tropical sun, people watching while walking the Ft. Lauderdale strip, spending time with Jess
& GR, and getting some wonderful R&R after pushing south to
warm weather the last few months. Our week long job was a great
success, including a special treat out in the ocean on the 127ft yacht for a photo shoot for Fisher magazine, a very high end yachting lifestyle magazine. We spent Christmas Eve quietly tucked into Aletheia with
some traditional treats and movies, Christmas dinner and New Year's
Eve with Jess & GR. They have been such great friends to us! NYE
also marked our 4 months aboard Aletheia. I like to announce these
milestones because it's important to me and a way to track and share
our progress; to look back just 4 months ago and measure our
experiences and whereabouts and compare them to today. I
like to account for the accomplishment.

The morning we arrived in Fort LaLa Land, we visited GR's 50ft Hatteras, Felicity,
for french toast and a mini reunion. After breakfast we went up on
the bow to soak in the beautiful weather and watch the sunday water
traffic. Looking to starboard (to the right) Nate saw a sailboat leaving their
mooring ball and shouted “Hey Jenn, it's Mendocino
Queen!”
Standing in shock, I thought to myself that's not possible, but
living among a small population of sailors on this little planet, the
world reminds you that it ain't so big after all.

Back
in December 2006 after a week of visiting Nate aboard Heretic (cousin
Seth's former boat) in the Bahamas we were looking to find a way to
hitch me a ride back to Nassau so I could catch my flight home
without Heretic having to sail back the 40-50 miles to “drop
me off”. Spending our last night in Allen's Cay, we met a lovely
couple, Allen and Kate. To make a long story short, they happily
offered to sail me back on Mendocino
Queen
since they were headed that way and didn't mind the company. After
parting ways with Heretic, we had a lovely sail, I stayed the night
on their boat, and they even took me out the next morning for a
birthday breakfast before sending me off in a cab to the airport. Who
knew that eight years later we'd see them again, moored right next to
our friend's boat in a random mooring field in one of the most
populated sailing communities this side of the Mississippi. I don't
know if that's actually true, but it sounds good. Serendipitously,
they chose to move their boat into our anchorage. After seeing their boat, we knew we had
to say hi. So we rowed over one afternoon to pay a visit. I
introduced myself and they immediately remembered me! They invited us
back over for a visit the night before they weighed anchor. It was
wonderful to hear new stories from them and share with them our
travels. I get chills thinking about our paths crossing again! We wish them well on their continued journey after 25 years as full-time cruisers. These are
inspirational people!